Case Story China

Minhe Chicken Manure Biogas Plant

June 2021

The problems in managing chicken manure

In China, the rapid development of the poultry production sector has resulted in significant amounts of chicken manure. Chicken manure is quite ammonical, can be detrimental to the environment should it not be managed well and is not ideally suited to anaerobic digestion. The total solids (TS) content of chicken manure is typically in the range of 10% to 30% (depending on animal husbandry); the total nitrogen content accounts for between 3.2% and 4.9% of the dry weight of the manure. The main components of chicken manure include for protein, fat and fiber, which have been shown to account for 28%, 2.3% and 10.2% of the dry weight, respectively. In terms of digestibility the major disadvantage is the low carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of chicken manure, which is generally between 6:1 and 12:1.

Minhe Chicken Manure Biogas Plant

The Minhe Chicken Manure Biogas Plant is located in Yantai city, Shandong Province, China. It has two clusters of biogas digesters which were constructed in two separate phases; the initial phase in 2009 and and the second phase in 2015.